Now as the norooz celebrations are reaching their end and reality has begun to catch up with us, some of us might already dread all that awaits us, be it work, stress, or simply having to go back to make (seemingly) fruitless endeavours. And naturally, as we continue to sail on the rocky lake of life, we all wish to somehow extend whatever moment of prosperity or happiness that comes our way, perhaps in a way also feeling a wee bit powerless to actually steer the direction that our life is taking. And yes, whilst we may not have the power to control currents or change the time of tides, we have been equipped with well-functioning oars that can help us handle them; and in my humble opinion, an individual’s greatest oar in life is his thoughts: How he deals with the inner world that shapes him into who and what he is.
Just like how saffron gives its scent, bright yellow colour and floral flavour to the rice that we daily cook in our kitchens, those small things we tell ourselves can somewhat change the taste of life as we know it, and in the best of cases even transform the greyest of days to the rosiest of experiences.
Every cloud has a silver lining. Always trying to find a way to evade the rocks that lurk underneath our boats or fighting against the currents that are trying to take us away is a difficult way of living. By occasionally turning our heads and looking up to find those silver linings we can instead brighten up our days in unimaginable ways, regardless of where we are in our lives and what we are going through.
While a pinch of saffron obviously never can affect or change the taste of the main course, it can bring about a flavour that can both enhance the most delicious of tastes and dampen the most unpleasant ones. And even though it is expensive and might even seem unnecessary to people from other countries, I think a lot of us – if not all – deem it to be worthy of daily consumption.
So, the next time we gather around the table (or sofreh) to have dinner with our loved ones and we see the yellow saffron gleaming before us, let us ruminate for a moment and ask ourselves: what did I turn into gold today?
Mahyar
2017-04-03
Putting Iran on the Divan 
Hi Mahyar
Thanks for your new post…I really like it
I’m wondering what is connection between thoughts that you mentioned as a oars in our life and saffron?
I’m really thank you in advance
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Hey there ^^ Thank you for the heart-warming compliment, I’m glad you like it.
What I wanted to convey with my little analogy is, simply put, that by striving to become more proactive when it comes to what and how we’re thinking, we can actively use our thoughts to move forward in life (just as how one would use one’s oars to determine one’s own direction) rather than just passively allowing our thoughts to respond in accordance with whatever happens to us (or, if I were to return to the analogy, rather than being steered by the currents around us).
Our thoughts basically build up the lens through which we see and interpret the world, and by changing the way we look at things, we may actually change the reality we live in for the better – not very different from how saffron gives plain white rice its golden gleaming colour.
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